Sustainability & Climate Change
Food production needs are expected to roughly double over the next 35 years as the world population grows and people in under developed countries become more affluent and demand more calories. Healthy ecosystems are vital to the survival of all organisms. How can we grow crops without harming the environment? How can we balance technology and global food security? What is the right balance of organic and conventional farming? What role can genetics and biotechnology play without compromising the needs of tomorrow?
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Plant-based meat critics say it’s not as healthy or sustainable as proponents claim. Let’s look at the nutrition and ecological science.
Education is not enough. Taste, cost, and convenience play dominant roles in shaping food choices ...
GMO crops with enhanced carbon-storing ability could help slow climate change
More than 10 percent of the Earth’s land-surface is cropped, about 3.7 billion acres of carbon sequestration Farmers’ toolkits for ...
Drones detect plant pests, dispatch natural predators to kill them
In Santa Monica, Calif., researchers flew drones with light-sensitive cameras over a strawberry field to locate pest-damaged plants. Armed with ...
GMO sustainability advantage? Glyphosate spurs no-till farming, preserving soil carbon
Skeptics of GMOs decry the growing practice of no-till farming and its connection to herbicide-tolerant crops. Yet, agronomists say good ...
Growing diverse crops may not slow climate change as much as previously thought
Integrating perennial crops into corn and soybean rotations doesn't consistently increase the ability of soils to store carbon, according to ...
Plant biologist explains how disease-resistant crops could help prevent global famine
Each month, those working at the pioneering heart of Norwich Research Park [in the UK] tell us how their work ...
CRISPR immunizes chickens against deadly virus, potentially boosting global egg and meat production
CRISPR genome editing has been used to make chickens resistant to a common virus. The approach could boost egg and ...
Have regulators failed to address agriculture’s fertilizer pollution problem?
Everywhere Randy Souder looked, he saw mud. On his soggy fields. In the mechanized crannies of his planter. Along the ...
Reforestation: Climate change solution or ‘ecosystem disservice’? Depends where you plant the trees
Reforestation is an important part of tackling climate change, but it seems we need to think carefully about where we ...
The Varroa destructor mite is the greatest threat to US honeybees, and why things could get worse.
Researchers are looking at a long-term solution: develop bees that can fend off Varroa themselves ...
We can sustainably feed 3.4 billion people. Study shows 4 eco-friendly farming practices will help produce food for 10 billion
Global agriculture puts heavy pressure on planetary boundaries, posing the challenge to achieve future food security without compromising Earth system ...
Vertical farms, lab-grown meat: The sustainable future of food, or ‘wishful thinking’?
Farmers have grown food in roughly the same way for thousands of years .... Now, entrepreneurs say they have a ...
Saving seafood: Lab-grown microalgae could help sustain the world’s overfished oceans
Oceans once teeming with life are being whittled away. Larger, predatory fish – salmon and tuna included – are now ...
Afraid of glyphosate and other synthetic pesticides? You eat 10,000 times more of the natural ones made by plants
Fruits and vegetables have evolved thousands of built-in pesticides chemically similar to the ones created in labs ...
Viewpoint: GMO crops should become a bigger part of the food system if we want a sustainable society
If we all work towards understanding science rather than being afraid of it, we can build a world where we ...
Improved seeds key to sustainable food security, African plant breeders say
Strategies now being rolled out to ensure food security on the African continent are unsustainable, according to the African Plant ...
Does organic mean ‘pesticide free’? 5 things to know about the USDA organic label
Here's what you're actually getting for that 'organic' premium price ...
Using GMO technology to restore the blight-devastated American chestnut: State University of New York awarded breakthrough $3.2 million Templeton Foundation grant
[The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry] has received its largest-ever charitable gift, $3.2 million, ...
Famine in Africa and the Middle East? Devastating stem rust fungus threatens global staple crop, but genomic solution may finally be on the horizon
These tools could give wheat, one of our most important staple crops, some much-needed relief ...
10 things you should know about Impossible Foods’ new GMO plant-based ‘pork’
Here comes the other faux white meat. Impossible Foods, the brand behind [2018's] Impossible Burger 2.0 craze, captivated the attention ...
Plant growth ‘on/off’ switch could help safeguard crop yields as farmers battle climate change
New research from UC Riverside identifies a protein that controls plant growth -- good news for an era in which ...
Biotech marijuana: Israeli startups aim to breed cannabis plant that’s easier to cultivate
Israeli medical cannabis company Cann10 has signed an agreement to team up with Israeli biotech company Epigenetics to form Cann10 ...
With 92% of U.S. corn coming from GMO plants, farmers see yield boom despite severe flooding
Under pressure from soggy fields, late planting and bouts of early winter weather, American corn and soy plants proved resilient ...
Eat less meat to cut CO2 emissions? That may not make your diet climate friendly, study shows
In global diets, meat is not necessarily the main driver of dietary carbon emissions, finds a new study published in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bee-pocalypse’—one of the 2010s biggest overblown moral panics
Human beings are anxious creatures. We worry about things that might kill us. We worry about things that might kill ...
Succulents for dinner? Heat-tolerant ‘sea beans’ may become important food source as climate change accelerates
In southern Israel’s stifling heat, rows of salicornia, commonly known as sea asparagus or sea beans, grow under translucent tarps, ...
US grocery stores roll out private label plant-based beef to compete with Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods
Cashing in on rising demand for imitation meat, major retailers including Kroger and Walmart recently began to carry Beyond Meat’s ...
